


A Cross-Time Caper

by PutItBriefly



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Time Travel, Written in that Post-Season Three/Pre-Season Four Anything Goes Gap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21678250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PutItBriefly/pseuds/PutItBriefly
Summary: When Hawk Moth's machinations inadvertently lead to the akumatization of Ladybug, it will take a bunny, a butterfly, a monkey, two ladybugs and three cats to set the world to rights again.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 25
Kudos: 107





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> STOP. Read the notes first!
> 
> One of the timelines will include Adrien/Kagami. It will not be a particularly positive depiction of that relationship. (Just in terms of 'I can't FOR A SECOND believe that Adrien's heart is in it. He went from making zero effort to get over Ladybug to dating someone else REAL fast.') If that's a deal breaker, turn back now.
> 
> Because I watch the English dub of the show, I always use English names/transformation phrases. This story, I am using "Chat Noir" instead of "Cat Noir" for Reasons. Everything else is still English version. I find it weird to be inconsistent, but. Reasons.
> 
> The title is a reference to "The Cross-Time Caper" storyline from Marvel's Excalibur superhero comic that ran in (I think) the 80's.
> 
> The genesis of this story was when Gryphinwyrm7 asked me if I planned a sequel to "Invisible Man" where Gabe tries to akumatize Marinette. I was like "No...but now I want to write akumatized Ladybug time travel shenanigans."

It was all still very theatrical, of course. He bowed low, head nearly even with his hips, one arm bent across his stomach, the other extended up and out. The broad grin permanently etched on his face these days was the perfect compliment to his exaggerated manners. “A pleasure as always, Ladybug, but I’m afraid I must be going.” Another paw pad on his ring vanished, leaving him with two. Chat Noir straightened, and drew his baton.

Two weeks ago, this would have gone down differently.

Probably, he would have bowed over her hand. His performance against the day’s akuma victim always informed his flirting. When he was pleased with himself, he was the old world gentleman. He thought it charming to bow over her hand, kiss her knuckles and call her  _ m’lady.  _ Ever hopeful good work would earn him romance, he’d resist leaving her until his ring demanded it. (Or until she teased him so much that he lost his nerve.)

If he had embarrassed himself during the fight, then he’d be defensive. All sass and unearned bravado, the sort that a girl with self-respect just couldn’t let stand in a boy who couldn’t back up his trash talk. He’d call her  _ Bugaboo _ just to hear her yell at him. That was his other favorite persona—the little boy on the playground who didn’t know how to tell a girl he liked her, so he antagonized her instead. Sometimes she answered his absurdity with cleverness, but more often than not she’d cross her arms and feign annoyance. Chat Noir always wanted attention, but when he was disappointed in himself, he usually tried to goad her into being upset with him, too. A good job meant looking for rewards he wouldn’t find and his easy acceptance of their absence; when he performed poorly, he’d force a scolding out of her if he had to. With hindsight, she’d let him have his way too much. When Chat Noir went fishing for a set down, his partner should have been the one propping him up.

Now she was _ Ladybug, _ always.

And she wasn’t the clever one anymore.

Giving up on Adrien and watching him ride off into the sunset with Kagami should have ended with Marinette climbing atop Luka’s white horse. He was sweet, and she liked him. Maybe he was a little too punk rock and anarchy for a beautiful house and three children at the end of their story, but it’d still be a  _ good _ story. They would be happy together. The disparity of their feelings had left their friendship unbalanced, but if they were  _ together, _ then Marinette could reciprocate. She could appreciate and support and respect him like he always had her.

But.

Life never wants to follow the path it should. 

Her heart, Marinette learned, was interested in hopeless pining exclusively. As for her stomach, well, that started doing flip-flops for Chat Noir. And although her tongue was just as adept at barking out a plan to defeat the an akuma as ever, once that was finished so was her ability to string together a coherent sentence.

Ladybug wished she could say it was because Chat Noir had matured a lot recently. Because he had! Chat Noir stepped up during the battle against Miracle Queen and it turned out quick thinking and strategy agreed with him. There had been more equal division of labor in the past two weeks than the entire preceding year combined. Just in time, too. Without Master Fu to guide them, they were on their own. Ladybug could not have shouldered the burden of the Miracle Box  _ and _ come up with all the plans  _ and _ always be ready to wind her yo-yo around Chat Noir’s ankles to yank him out of the line of fire. Saving Paris had never been a game to him, exactly, but he’d enjoyed it in a way Ladybug couldn’t. To don a mask and smack a monster with a stick was how Chat Noir blew off steam. It was his escape from stress. Now even he could not deny the magnitude of the job before them. 

The identities of their entire team had been compromised.

The loss of Master Fu’s memory was bad enough, but it also meant they lost their access to Guardian lore and the Grimoire.

The only council they had left was their kwamis, and transformation cut them off from Tikki and Plagg. Ladybug and Chat Noir had always been fond of using  _ the two of us against the world _ as a rallying cry, but now it was  _ true.  _ And Chat Noir was pulling his weight.

Ladybug wished she could say she fell in love with him because of that. It would have been poetic, somehow. It would have been  _ worthy _ of him.

But no. 

Marinette had a good cry over Adrien—a dozen of them, really—binged ice cream and terrible rom coms with Alya, heard some variation of  _ if he doesn’t see how special you are then he doesn’t deserve you _ from literally everyone she’d ever met—most in good faith, though the Chloe version was  _ excruciating _ in it’s backhanded compliments and the Lila version was pretty obviously designed to make her feel worse—and bought a new diary. New pages for a new era. In general, Marinette did her absolute best to put her feelings for Adrien behind her.

If Adrien and Kagami made each other happy, then that was all that mattered, right? Right.

Right.

Right.

_ Right. _

Marinette did her absolute best to put her feelings for Adrien behind her and they went absolutely nowhere because  _ feelings don’t go away when you ask them nicely. _ But the loyalty to Adrien that had once made the idea of dating someone else feel so relentlessly wrong? That did leave. It turned out the world was  _ filled _ with people as cute and smart and funny and kind and gentle and charming and vulnerable and brave and good as Adrien. Her heart scamped right up to Chat Noir and went,  _ Well! How about this one? Isn’t he exactly who you’ve always wanted? _

And when she tilted her head and squinted, he kinda was.

Only...she didn’t have to squint, actually.

Or tilt anything.

Looking back, Ladybug had probably been half in love with Chat Noir all along. Her dislike of the cute nicknames and attempts to steal kisses had simply been part of the mask. Another means of distancing Ladybug, Ultra-Competent Hero of Paris from Ladybug, Regular Teenager Making Up How to Save the World As She Went. For a while, she even fooled herself! Before Felix, she might have said Chat Noir pushed her boundaries and ignored her comfort zones.  _ But after?  _ The contrast between her playful partner’s irrepressible flirting and the actions of someone who pressed onwards without caring about her feelings could not be sharper.

Looking back, Ladybug had definitely been completely in love with Chat Noir all along. When viewed through the lens of having loved him, their year fighting side by side made so much more sense. It was her own love that she called upon to conquer Dark Cupid’s spell. When Chat Noir wondered if he would have had a shot in a world without Adrien, Ladybug couldn’t imagine one—but Oblivio soon stripped her of her memories, and photographic proof suggested that in a world where she was at least ignorant of Adrien, she would have fallen into Chat Noir’s arms immediately. And then there was Chat Blanc’s timeline. Ladybug could never know what really happened in that twisted world. Chat Blanc had babbled a lot about them being in love, but in the moment, Ladybug had thought nothing of it. It was simply his one track mind run off the rails. But from the safety of distance and a repaired timeline, she started to wonder if Chat Blanc had been more lucid than he let on. Maybe something  _ had _ happened between them… 

And ended with the boy she loved akumatized, Paris a half-submerged hellscape and herself dead.

Rationally, she knew Ladybug and Chat Noir could go get an ice cream at Andre’s together without triggering the end of the world. There must be a step in between their love and the destruction of the city they were charged with protecting. It was a moot point. He had a girlfriend now.

(Sometimes, she was confident she could steal him away if she tried. He’d wanted Ladybug for  _ so long. _ Surely if she just apologized and told him how she felt, he’d forget all about other girls. But doing that would make her a bad person, wouldn’t it?)

(Other times, it wasn’t right and wrong that stopped her, but the fear that he didn’t care anymore. That Chat Noir would say  _ no, _ and Ladybug would have to face that she’d lost her chance with him _ forever.) _

“Pleasure’s yours, I mean, nine _. Mine.  _ I mean… See you next time, Chat Noir.”

At least the precarious nature of their transformations meant Ladybug was never trapped in a long, awkward conversation with Chat Noir. When she made a fool of herself in front of Adrien, that was agony for hours. Chat Noir only had two pad paws left, and her earrings were not faring any better. He was leaving, and she wouldn’t see him again until they were in the thick of a fight.

He was kind enough to never question her sudden tendency to get tongue-tied. Ladybug knew he noticed. His banter came slower, like he had to make a mental adjustment when her confidence disappeared. __

It was in that beat of silence—the one that used to not be there, but hung over her like the blade of a guillotine while Chat Noir cautiously decided how to respond—a brand new opportunity for chaos that two weeks ago would not have existed, but did today—when she wished a black hole would open up and swallow her whole

_ that one did. _

Sort of. 

“Minibug! Kitten Noir!”

It wasn’t a black hole, but the white-blue void of the Burrow. Bunnyx hung half out, arms making sweeping gestures to urge them closer. “It’s go time!”

As far as holes to swallow you up so that you don’t have to confront your own embarrassment went, the Burrow was kind of a lousy one if Chat Noir was invited. “We’re about to transform back!”

“I came prepared, Minibug. I’m sure you both did, too, with snacks for your kwamis.”

Chat Noir tossed Ladybug an uneasy smile. “Bunnyx wouldn’t be here just for chit-chat. We’d better go.” 

(He had lately developed an irritating tendency to take his job seriously.)

(The love and support of his girlfriend was so freaking good for him that it was a little grating.)

Bunnyx’s security measures were, unsurprisingly, a pair of bowls slapped over their heads before she ushered them blindly into the Burrow. Well.  _ Ladybug _ more or less knew to expect that. Chat Noir yelped. It was good to hear his facade drop, even if just for a second. He had come into his own recently, but underneath it all, he was the same pratfalling goofball he’d always been.

“Spots off.”

“Claws in.”

Familiarity with her purse made any awkward groping unnecessary. Producing a macaron for Tikki was as natural as breathing. For her part, Tikki seemed to be in awe of what she could see. Marinette heard a tiny “Wow” pass Tikki’s lips and from further away, de-transformed Chat Noir trying to placate Plagg. There was a job to be done. No rest for lazy cats, and no time to explore for Tikki.

“Tikki, Spots on!”

“Plagg, Claws out!”

The Burrow was full of secrets. Bunnyx monitored untold timelines, ushering their lives along the best possible path. Although she had heard Chat Noir transform and knew their identities were safe for another day, Ladybug did not dare remove the bowl. Bunnyx would tell her when it was safe to look.

“That—”

_ “Don’t!” _

“—is the mini-est Minibug I’ve ever seen.”

Ladybug tilted the rim of the bowl back. Bunnyx was glaring daggers at a thoroughly unconcerned Chat Noir. A  _ taller _ Chat Noir. His shoulders were deliciously broad, and his mop of blond hair was not a smidge neater. What should have been absurd—a grown man in a skin tight cat costume, bell and all—simply wasn’t. He stood with the complete assurance that he belonged in that outfit, and so it looked natural.  _ Right. _

Ladybug eyes darted to the boy Bunnyx had brought with them. He’d also tipped his bowl back, and was staring dumbfounded at his future self.

“I mean it,” Chat Plus Sombre said, looking thoughtfully at Ladybug, “What are you? Thirteen?”

Ladybug bristled. So he was a grown-up, so what? That didn’t mean she was useless. “Almost fifteen.”

“She may be a newbie,” Bunnyx interjected, “but she’s good.”

Chat Plus Sombre held his hands up in surrender. “No need to remind me how fast Ladybug picked up the ins and outs of being a superhero. I’ve been playing catch-up since the day we met. I’m just surprised you went this young, Bunnyx. Isn’t the goal to pick her up five minutes before she quit?”

Quit.

Quit.

The casual way the word rolled off his tongue, as if Ladybug quitting could ever be normal, made her blood run cold. It was one thing if she wasn’t  _ needed _ anymore. She’d happily hang up her yo-yo if Paris was safe. But it sounded like she’d left Chat Plus Sombre high and dry, reduced to plucking partners out of the timestream in order to keep on fighting.

She was going to  _ quit. _

Bunnyx treated the revelation like it was normal, too. “For you.  _ They’re _ gonna take a quick detour. I found something else in the timestream that needs fixing. We’ll get back on track once Minibug and Kitten Noir have accomplished their mission.”

Chat Plus Sombre frowned at Chat Noir. “I don’t remember being tagged for one of these.”

“One of what?” Chat Noir cried. “And where’s future Ladybug?” 

“We can’t tell you,” Bunnyx answered. “It’s bad enough you saw him as it is.”

Chat Plus Sombre shrugged. “Nah, it’s fine. I don’t remember this  _ at all.  _ He’s definitely gonna get mindwiped.”

“And her?”

Crossing his arms, Chat Plus Sombre acceded the point to Bunnyx. “Okay, since I don’t  _ know _ my little lady is also gonna get mindwiped, I’ll be infuriatingly obtuse. That suit you better?” It didn’t appear to placate Bunnyx, but Chat Plus Sombre had evidently compromised as far as he was willing. “My Ladybug—by which I mean the Ladybug of my time, attach no further significance—is fine. She’s taken a temporary leave of absence. We— _ she _ planned it in advance. No Guardian mindwipe activated. She’s coming back. But since Paris still needs a Ladybug, we take one from the timestream as needed. There’s a gap of about three years between when she made the plan and when she needed it that we usually swipe a Minibug from.”

That felt...reckless. Tentatively, Ladybug said, “I thought time is delicate.”

“It is,” Bunnyx answered. There was a slight air of scolding. 

_ “But,” _ Chat Plus Sombre interjected, “you’re not replaceable, and the earrings are too powerful to sub out even if just anyone could do the job.”

Ladybug looked away, embarrassingly flattered. 

“We’ve wasted enough time,” Bunnyx declared. “Better get back on track.”

“She says that,” Chat Plus Sombre added merrily, “but it really doesn’t matter. It’s time travel. She’s gonna drop you in the same nanosecond no matter how much time we spend in here.”

“You can only say that because you haven’t faded from existence.”

Chat Plus Sombre flailed. “Don’t you dare listen to her, Minibug and Mini Me! I’ve stopped existing loads of times! I’m an expert at it! You just—whoosh!” He snapped his fingers. “Stop.”

So the new and improved Serious Chat Noir was not a step away from pointless self-sacrifice. His adult self sounded like it was half-badge of honor, half-hilarious to disappear. “It isn’t funny,” Ladybug said, feeling vaguely faint.

Cat Plus Sombre softened. “You liar, you’re not almost fifteen. That was pure fourteen-and-a-half.”

Ladybug crossed her arms. “Like you can tell. You thought I was thirteen a minute ago.”

“You had a bowl on your head! It’s not fair to judge my level of knowing you-ness by what I thought when you had a bowl on your head. I demand a re-do. Get me another Minibug, Bunnyx.”

“No. Stop.” Bunnyx inhaled. “Here is what is going to happen: they are going to do their mission. We are going to wait here. If they fail, we dip back into time and try again. We’ll do it as many times as it takes for them to get the win. Then, we’re going to go back to our time for the mission we were supposed to be doing. I will not be taking questions.”

Chat Plus Sombre held up a finger. “Not a question. Comment: We broke Mini Me.”

Bunnyx fisted her hands in her hair. “You said you don’t remember this!”

“I don’t. He’s just not having any fun with this, so I have concerns.”

It was a good point. Chat Noir had been awfully quiet. “Can you give us a minute?” Ladybug asked.

Chat Plus Sombre gestured to the Burrow. Yes, it was surprisingly large, but there was no privacy to be found. “Not really.”

_ “Pretend.” _ Ladybug shooed Bunnyx and Chat Plus Sombre to the far side of the ...what even was this? Plane of existence? Pocket dimension? Chat Noir sank to the floor, knees up and put the bowl back on his head.

“Kitty, what’s wrong?”

“Him.  _ Me.” _

Well, that was just crazy. “You realize you grow up to be Doctor Who, right? Pulling companions from time and space. You should be excited!”

“I’m trying so hard to not be  _ that guy _ anymore. Looks like it doesn’t even matter.”

“What’s wrong with  _ that guy?”  _ Ladybug happened to like that guy a lot. So much so that seeing him curled in on himself like this was a complete crisis, disastrous enough to forestall all stuttering.

“Were you even paying attention to the way he talks about you?”

“I don’t like how me quitting seems normal to him, but I guess I just don’t understand why  _ we’re both _ going to think it makes sense someday.” 

Chat Noir’s shoulders hunched. “Thought so. He keeps calling you his and you don’t even notice. I stopped doing that.”

“I noticed  _ you.” _

“I know the nicknames didn’t mean anything to you, but they mattered to me.”

She should tell him that she missed the nicknames. She wanted to be his lady, his Bugaboo, his everything. But that wasn’t fair to him. He had a girlfriend now.

“Are you really fourteen and a half?”

That it was even a question to Chat Noir struck Ladybug with unexpected force. That level of specificity into their ages was so far into Secret Identity territory that they’d never gone there. Chat Noir  _ didn’t know _ how old she was. But his adult self could pin it down within a span of months. Chat Plus Sombre knew her better than Ladybug had ever thought she and Chat Noir could realistically know each other. 

Ladybug didn’t answer, but they both knew she didn’t need to.

_ “You quit,  _ and he goes through time looking for different yous instead of just getting a new partner.”

“That’s not his fault,” Ladybug protested. “If I don’t give up the earrings, what else can he do?”

“It isn’t fair. I’m  _ trying, _ Ladybug. I really am.”

She laid her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I know you are. You’ve matured so much. I’ve been really impressed these past couple of weeks. You’ve been awesome, and you shouldn’t look at him and feel like you’re not. Because he’s awesome. You’re still a superhero when you grow up, and a really good one. I’m jealous. I don’t grow up to be Doctor Who.”

Chat Noir eased the bowl back. “Let’s just do the mission and go home.”

Probably, Bunnyx and Chat Plus Sombre couldn’t avoid overhearing the conversation, but the polite thing to do would have been feign ignorance. Yet the moment Chat Noir announced he wanted to get it done and go home (and probably get an ego boost from his girlfriend), the illusion of privacy was shattered. 

“That sounded like ready to roll to me!” 

“Cross-Time Caper is go!” Chat Plus Sombre cocked one hidden eyebrow. “When  _ are _ they going?”

Ladybug pulled Chat Noir to his feet and tossed his bowl aside. They followed Bunnyx to the window she beckoned them towards. It was Paris, of course, the beloved skyline marred by a whirling, writhing mass of red hovering in the air near Notre Dame. Bunnyx zoomed in.

The red was…ladybugs? Ladybug bit her lip. Those were her Miraculous Ladybugs of creation, but they weren’t repairing magical damage and disappearing. They were hard at work, diligently crafting something in the sky.

Bunnyx scrolled down, and on the street stood Chat Noir, (a third Chat Noir) staring up at the ladybugs, his face streaked with tears. 

“Oh,” Chat Plus Sombre breathed.  _ “This _ I remember.”

She had a feeling she knew the answer, but Ladybug asked anyway. “What’s going on?”

Grim, he said exactly what she suspected he would: “You’ve been akumatized, m’lady.”


	2. Chapter 2

The Burrow faded. Her lungs ached, and Ladybug realized she’d stopped breathing. She inhaled. Air tasted sharp and sour, somehow. There was a heaviness in her chest that didn’t belong there.

Chat Plus Sombre remembered when his Ladybug had been akumatized.

He remembered it.

After Ladybug purified Chat Blanc’s little butterfly, Bunnyx rewound time, took her back to the inciting incident. The entire timeline had been erased, replaced by the lives she and Chat Noir led now. It didn’t happen. Not  _ really.  _ Not to Chat Noir, and that was what mattered.

Chat Plus Sombre didn’t remember being tagged for a time travel mission. His memory wasn’t like Ladybug or Bunnyx’s memory of Chat Blanc’s timeline. He remembered Ladybug being akumatized because he was once that boy, crying over his partner. This was not going to be erased. Chat Plus Sombre lived it, lived the aftermath, and so would she.

This was going to happen to her. Being akumatized was one of a multitude of experiences that separated Ladybug and the version of her who would someday walk away. One of a multitude of experiences that separated her Chat Noir—who was trying so  _ hard _ to grow up—from Chat Plus Sombre, who had.

Ladybug was going to be akumatized.

Ladybug was going to be akumatized and her partner was going to be powerless to help her.

chat blanc had killed ladybug, hadn’t he? she should be grateful that akumabug only made him  _ cry _ she didn’t  _ kill _ him

Had it not been for Bunnyx’s ability to pluck another Ladybug out of the time stream, Hawk Moth would have won.

And his victory would have been led by Ladybug herself.

And Chat Plus Sombre remembered it.

They weren’t going to undo this. It was going to happen.

It was  _ inevitable. _

(And probably, before they were through, they would wipe her memory of it so that she wouldn’t know it was inevitable. But it was.)

Time to put her game face on. “Fill. Me. In.”

“You’re fifteen.”

Information was the key to freeing an akuma victim from Hawk Moth’s control. What were they feeling? Why? What was their new form, their new powers, their weakness? What did they want, and where was that akuma hiding? Her partner was direct, to the point. She expected something straight forward and actionable. Something like  _ the akuma is in your left hair ribbon  _ or _ Hawk Moth turned you into a literal bug. _

Instead, he’s wistful. “Just had a birthday. I got you this dress for that birthday—black with blue accents the color of your eyes. We thought we were so grown up.”

Bunnyx put her hand on the bubble of whirling ladybugs and crying boy. The image froze. Same nanosecond, no matter how much time they spent preparing. “She doesn’t need your life story.”

“Right. Anyway.” The nostalgia didn’t quite go away, but Chat Plus Sombre forged ahead. “We were really close then. I mean, we were  _ always _ close, but it was different. When we first started out, I wanted Ladybug to fall in love with me and that’s just...it’s a good way to make sure it doesn’t happen, huh?”

Ladybug bit her lip and looked at Chat Noir. Was that painful for him? Or was he so  _ over _ her that it didn’t matter?

Chat Plus Sombre better get to the point real soon. 

“At fifteen, that’s all over. You don’t feel like you need to keep me at arm’s length anymore. We can talk. I mean, yeah, secret identities and everything—what we talked about was vague bullshit a lot of the time. But we had this whole plan for defeating Hawk Moth and it was  _ talking _ . Fear and anger and hurt aren’t bad. We feel them for a reason. That’s your brain telling you something’s not right and you need to change it. Hawk Moth’s whole thing is manipulating that urge to change, so if everyone just talked about their feelings and figured out how to fix what was hurting them, Hawk Moth’s out of luck, right?” 

“Right!” Ladybug nudged Chat Noir in the ribs. That was such a great approach to akumatizations she couldn’t believe it took them a year to come up with it!

“Wrong! Processing how you feel and being proactive is great and all, but Hawk Moth is much faster. We didn’t think twice about transforming just to talk if we had a bad day.”

Oh.

oh

This hadn’t protected anyone from Hawk Moth. It had made them  _ targets. _

“Something terrible happened to you that day, little lady. You texted me because you needed to talk to someone and I showed up, but…” Chat Plus Sombre stopped. He looked away and seemed to force himself to continue. “I came, but I wasn’t listening. I’d had a bad day, too, and I didn’t want to steal your venting session, but I didn’t  _ care, _ either. Maybe if I’d been a better friend, the akuma wouldn’t have been able to take you. Or maybe our Talk It Out idea was always going to lead to this. I don’t know.” He sighed. “I failed you, and I couldn’t do anything about it and then—”

The weight on his shoulders seemed to fall off, and he smiled.

“And then you showed up.”

“That’s your cue,” Bunnyx interjected. “Storytime is  _ over. _ We’re not adding anything else. Minibug, Kitten Noir, good luck. We’ll be monitoring you from the Burrow in case we have to try again.”

Chat Plus Sombre held up two fingers. “They won’t fail, and I’m going down there, too.”

“What part of time is delicate do you have so much trouble with?” Bunnyx looked like she wanted to tear her hair out.

“None. I just remember me being there.”

They emerged from the portal practically on top of Chat Milieu. With a look of disbelief, he scrubbed the tears from his face with the heels of his hands.

“Hi!” Chat Plus Sombre said cheerfully. “I’m you, this is Minibug and Mini-Me. Mini-Us? Minier-Me? Eh, we’ll figure it out.”

_ “Save her!” _

“Right, right.” Chat Plus Sombre folded his arms and nodded. “Minibug, what’s our play?”

Ladybug sputtered. “Why are you asking me?  _ You remember this!” _

“And I remember Ladybug taking the lead.”

She glared at him. So unhelpful!

“Anyway,” Chat Plus Sombre continued, “you’re the one—ones—Bunnyx picked for this mission. I’m just tagging along.”

“It sounds like Bunnyx pulls Ladybug for missions a lot,” Chat Noir piped up. “But an older you. There’s got to be a reason she went out of her way to  _ you _ you.”

“Us,” Ladybug corrected. “So what makes us different from the rest of the timeline? Something being older and more experienced won’t help with?”

Chat Noir shrugged. “Something recent?”

Ladybug nodded. “Because memories get fuzzy over time! Every time you remember something, you’re not remembering it, you’re remembering the last time you remembered it! What do we remember better than our adult selves do?”

Hawk Moth’s recent akumas had been unexceptional. Miracle Queen was his last big play, and they hadn’t seen a thing from Mayura since then. Before that was Sentibug and

_ Chat Blanc. _

The destruction of Paris. The deaths of Miraculous wielders who should have been invulnerable. They way he could flick Cataclysms from his fingers, a gigantic blast from his palms.

(Ladybug honestly couldn’t fathom that memory fading with time, but hopefully it would not be so present in her mind after years of happy partnership and more intimate friendship.)

“Hawk Moth gave her  _ creation _ powers.”

“Like Miracle Queen!” Chat Noir agreed. “Amp up the powers she already had!”

Ladybug nodded. “Making an akuma victim fight us and take our Miraculous by force has never worked. Akumabug isn’t fighting. She’s creating.”

Chat Noir’s brow furrowed. “But your Lucky Charm happens as soon as you say the words. Why is this taking so long?”

“Because he doesn’t want a Lucky Charm. Crap!” A spool of thread fell out of her yo-yo. “I wasn’t ready for that!” Ladybug scooped up the spool and held it up to her eye. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Never mind that right now,” Chat Plus Sombre said, waving his hand. “We’ve got bigger bugs to catch.”

“But now I only have a few minutes before I transform back!”

Chat Plus Sombre exhaled. “I’ve been off a timer so long I forgot what a pain that is to work around. Anyway. She’s creating.” He gestured to Akumabug. “Something big, something Hawk Moth can’t leave to chance. What is it?”

“The earrings?” Chat Milieu offered tentatively. “He loses her as a powerful akuma if he makes her give them up. Maybe he’s just making his own pair?”

Ladybug snapped her fingers. “No, it’s your  _ ring!  _ Maybe a whole Miracle Box, but definitely the ring. Once she’s done, she can just turn over both to Hawk Moth without ever having to fight us all.” She waggled the spool of thread. “I know what to do with this now. I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

Ladybug launched herself to the rooftops with her yo-yo. Her family’s bakery was successful, and they were always on the verge of talking about moving to a larger storefront. She hoped six months or so into the future was a short enough time to guarantee that had not happened. More likely was that she would have found a better place to hide the Miracle Box, but Ladybug hoped that was not the case either.

She landed on the roof (still looked the same, plant boxes, furniture, lights) and dropped down the skylight.

Her room had been  _ trashed. _

Could this be what had upset her so much that she’d been akumatized? Had the bakery been robbed? Were her parents okay? What if they were dead? What if they were fine and she went down stairs and they immediately noticed she was younger than she was supposed to be? What if she’d cut her hair or gotten glasses or

_ what if she had a tattoo? _

(Okay, that one was definitely a no, but still.)

“Spots off.”

“What happened?” Tikki whimpered, looking around. 

“I don’t know, but please, Tikki, sneak downstairs and make sure my parents are okay?”

Tikki accepted the mission with a firm nod. “I’ll be right back, Marinette.”

Marinette hugged herself. Sighing, she picked up her corkboard off the floor by her bed to return it to the wall.

It was covered in pictures of her and Adrien.

Marinette lifted a framed photo that had been placed face down.

Her and Adrien.

She crept down the loft steps to her computer and tapped on the keyboard to wake it up. The wallpaper was her and Adrien.

Marinette hesitated for a moment before seizing the lockbox she kept her diary in. She fished the key out of her purse. The time stream was delicate and there ought to be surprises in life—Bunnyx would be livid if she knew Marinette was snooping. But Chat Plus Sombre thought she and Chat Noir were going to be mind wiped and he was probably right.

Pulling out her diary, Marinette flipped to the last entry:

_I don’t understand. I thought Adrien’s father_ _liked_ _me. He says I’m a bad influence and I’m hurting Adrien’s career and how can that matter when Adrien is_ _so happy?_ _But he’s going to pull Adrien out of school if I don’t. I can’t be selfish. I have to let him go. I just don’t know how._

Though the paper was dry now, the ink was smudged in some places—there were stiff, discolored, wrinkled dots all over the page. Marinette knew she’d been crying when she wrote the entry.

She flipped forward a few pages.

_ OMG best birthday ever!!!! _

_ Adrien gave me a couture dress _ _ HAND MADE BY GABRIEL AGRESTE _ _ that Adrien  _ _ helped design. _ _ I wore it to a Fancy Dinner and then Adrien said we were going to get coffee at a cafe he thought I’d like  _ _ BUT IT WAS A SURPRISE PARTY!  _

The entry went on to detail the food and the music and the presents and how handsome Adrien looked and how nervous he was hoping he’d done a good job (complete surprise, she expected nothing, he did an amazing job). Guilt-ridden, Marinette flipped to an entry a few weeks earlier.

_ Adrien and Kagami broke up ages ago. I didn’t write about it before because it felt petty. They’re my friends and part of me was happy they broke up, even though I knew it made them both sad. _

_ I’ve been thinking a lot about Chat Noir since then. I don’t think I loved him. I just wanted to hold on to that feeling of  _ _ being _ _ in love without holding on to  _ _ Adrien _ _. I’m glad I never told Chat Noir how I felt. It wouldn’t have been fair to him or his girlfriend, especially now that I know it wasn’t true. _

_ Today, Adrien told me that he was the one that broke up with Kagami. I didn’t know that. Neither of them ever really talked about it before. But he said that being with her always felt wrong, and that he thought it was because of this girl from work that he liked but didn’t like him back. But then he said that he realized that wasn’t what was bothering him. _

_ He said he broke up with Kagami because  _ _ he’s in love with me. _

_ He said he thought about not saying anything because he knows Kagami and me are friends and he didn’t want Kagami to feel weird about it, but I guess she got on his case about dumping him for another girl and then not saying anything to her. _

_ I know I should have been all ~There’s someone else~ because of Chat Noir, but there isn’t. Not really. I’ve been waiting for Adrien all along. _

Tikki burst up through the floor. “Your mom and dad are fine, Marinette! What are you doing?”

Marinette slammed the diary shut. “Nothing! Getting the Miracle Box!” Hurried, she locked the diary up and scrambled up the stairs to pull the Miracle Box out of its hiding place.

She placed the Monkey circlet on her head. “Mission awaits! Tikki, Spots on! Xuppu, Tikki, unify!”

Lady Monkey hurried back to where she had left the cats, hoping Akumabug had not completed the ring yet. If Bunnyx had to pull them back into the Burrow to try again, she knew the second attempt would be faster. They wouldn’t have to reason out what Akumabug was doing, or worry about her parents, or give into the temptation to read her diary. Still, the timeline was delicate and it was probably best if this only took one go.

The scene looked about the same. “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting!”

Chat Plus Sombre shrugged. “We’ve just been  _ cat _ ching up.”

“Great,” Lady Monkey replied flatly. “Do you remember where her akuma is hiding?”

“Uh...a hair ribbon, but I dunno if it’s left or right. It’s been a while.”

“There are three of you, so my plan will work either way.” Quickly, Lady Monkey assigned a job to each cat.

“Uproar!” A wall clock about the size of a dinner plate, showing the same red and black spotted pattern she’d come to expect from a Lucky Charm fell into her hand. It had a good heft to it, and Lady Monkey flung it at the mass of whirling, creating ladybugs.

It hit them, and they scattered. In unison, the cats moved. Chat Plus Sombre snatched Akumabug out of the sky as she fell without the support of her ladybugs. The two younger cats came at her from both sides, each using their Cataclysm on one of her hair ribbons. Lady Monkey watched for the butterfly to emerge from the street below and swung her yo-yo out to catch it when it did.

(She wasn’t sure if it was the right or left ribbon, either, come to think of it.)

“Bye-bye, little butterfly.”

The de-evilized Ladybug looked dazed. Chat Plus Sombre pushed her into Chat Milieu’s arms and said sternly, “Do better.”

Chat Milieu hugged his Ladybug tight. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll listen, I swear!”

Nestled in the arms of her dear friend, she asked, “Is it okay if I don’t want to talk right now?”

Chat Milieu seemed sheepish. “Then whenever you’re ready!”

“Great work, everyone!” They all turned to see Bunnyx hanging out of the Burrow. “Come on, let’s take the Minis back to before the inciting incident, erase it all nice and neat with a Miraculous Ladybug.”

“No!”

Bunnyx glared at Chat Plus Sombre. “What do you mean ‘No?’”

“I mean one of them needs to Miraculous Ladybug it now. Here, in this timeline. We can’t erase this like it never happened. It  _ has _ to happen.”

“No offense, but you remembering this isn’t actually of the Grand Importance you seem to think it is. It helped exactly not at all. Minibug and Kitten Noir did all the work.” 

“I can’t do it unless I transform back first,” the de-evilised Ladybug piped up. “I already used my Miraculous Ladybugs when I was akumatized.”

Turning to Lady Monkey, Chat Plus Sombre said, “Little Lady, you have to trust me. Do it now. I can’t tell you why, not out in the open like this.” 

Bunnyx frowned. “Believe it or not, akumatized Ladybug is  _ not _ the optimal timeline. We should just wipe it clean.” 

Lady Monkey’s eyes darted between Bunnyx and Chat Plus Sombre. She dreaded the idea of her own akumatization being inevitable. If Bunnyx was right...that they could just wipe it clean, then she ought to do that, right?

But Chat Plus Sombre was her partner, a version of him, anyway. And if he asked her to trust him…

Then she’d trust him.

Lady Monkey picked up the clock from where it had fallen after hitting the ladybugs. It  _ looked _ like a Lucky Charm. Would it release ladybugs like a Lucky Charm?

_ “Miraculous Ladybug!” _


End file.
